Houston shipper sees more shale oil, ethanol through Port of Albany

Updated 10:08 pm, Wednesday, February 13, 2013

ALBANY — A Houston oil company is seeking state permission to more than double the amount of North Dakota shale crude oil that it ships through the Port of Albany down the Hudson River.

Buckeye Partners has filed a permit application with the state Department of Environmental Conservation to increase its oil loading at the port, where it ships in oil on rail cars, to reach up to one billion gallons a year.

Buckeye, which began shipping oil last fall, currently has a state permit to ship up to 395 million gallons of oil annually. DEC is taking public comments on the permit changes through March 15.

Buckeye also wants state permission to ship up to 780 million gallons of ethanol a year. Ethanol is used as a gasoline additive.

The company's request to sharply increase oil shipments comes as a U.S. Coast Guard investigation continues into the grounding of an oil tanker in December that was carrying Buckeye oil down the river.

The tanker Stena Primorsk was on its maiden voyage from the company terminal Dec. 20 when it apparently struck something that cracked its hull near Bethlehem.

The tanker's outer hull was pierced, but a second hull remained intact and prevented an oil spill of the vessel's 12 million gallons.

A leak could have fouled the Hudson for miles.

A call to Buckeye Partners was not returned. Coast Guard officials could not be reached for comment on the status of the investigation.

Buckeye ships its oil to an Irving Oil Co. refinery in St. John, New Brunswick.

Since the mishap, both Buckeye has reverted to shipping its oil out in barges, which can run in shallower water than a tanker.